History

The Center for Endangered Languages Documentation (CELD) was established in 2009 at Universitas Negeri Papua (UNIPA), the State University of Papua, in order to facilitate state of the art linguistic and anthropological research and reach out for communities of endangered languages in Indonesian Papua.

The CELD is well equipped with the latest documentation technology enabling its staff to carry out documentations of indigenous cultures and languages. Beyond that, the CELD develops strategies and materials with local speech communities in order to preserve their cultural knowledge and language independently.

In its first program, the CELD focused on Wooi, a language of Yapen island. Yapen is located in the Cenderawasih Bay, north-west of mainland Papua, and is currently populated by more than 83.000 people. Over the next years, the CELD expanded its focus with further documentation programs by making use of the capacities of the center and its young researchers.

The major projects currently hosted by the CELD are Wooi, Iha, and Yali. Further projects are associated.